Job 40 Great & Mighty Is He!

Daily Bible Study for Friday June 24, 2016

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns

Fish – N – Loaves Ministries

Multiplying God’s Word around the Globe!

Chapter Reading for Today: Please read in your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version, that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I will keep it with the New King James Version. One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my own writing. I am adding red to the letters when it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.

Bible Gateway Verse of the Day

2 Thessalonians 3:3

But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.

Psalm 100:4

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

                                       Song:  Great and Mighty is He  

Great & Mighty is He!

God had a really big question for Job in today’s chapter and He fully expected an answer. What would any man do if they heard the powerful voice of God ask them if they would be able to instruct Him or correct him? We will find out where the Lord will take us on this new journey. Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father;

Praise and thanks is always the best place to enter into Your awesome presence. Father, we come humbly before You today to hear what You want us to learn in this wonderful section of Your word. Father, I ask You to bring forth Your word to us unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Use my mind, heart and hands to convey Your message to Your children. Father, Thank You for speaking to us and we will purpose in our hearts to be doers of Your word – in Jesus name. Amen!

Can you just picture the scene? God is right there, manifesting His presence in a tangible way – a whirlwind. Job is listening and in a state of awesome fear. That’s good. Can you imagine what it would feel like to try and stand in the presence of a category 5 tornado with winds in excess of 261 MPH? You couldn’t! It would blow you and me away like a tiny speckle of dust. Now imagine standing in the presence of Almighty God as He manifests Himself in a whirlwind. Do you suppose we would even be able to stand on our feet? Hardly. Yet today’s chapter shows God asking Job the questions – see verse 2…

Job 40:2

“Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it.”

Job’s only response was to admit how vile he was and that he was shutting his mouth and placing his hand over it as if it were a heavy duty lock with no key. He may have thought he had some things to say before this, but now, he was rendered completely speechless. Who wouldn’t be? What can any man on the planet say to the Lord in a situation like this? It is extremely humbling, isn’t it saints? If you have ever been in a situation where you knew you blew it and had to stand there and take your correction, then you have a taste of what this might feel like – but until we experience something like this it is difficult to understand. How little and limited we are in the flesh compared to Almighty God – amen!

Next the Lord advised Job to stand up like a man (again) just like He did when He first approached him, and get ready to give the Lord an answer. And when God demands an answer, a person had best be ready to give one.

He already knows what is in our hearts – so we might as well ‘cough it up’ as they say. We have to get real with God because He will not tolerate anything false from us and He can see way past any façade we may try to portray. He is all knowing at all times. Glory to His name forever! The Lord gave a list of questions to Job that he would need to answer that would put anybody in neutral. Let’s review the questions…

Job 40:8-14

“Would you indeed annul My judgment?
Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?

Have you an arm like God?
Or can you thunder with a voice like His?

Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor,
And array yourself with glory and beauty.

Disperse the rage of your wrath;
Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him.
Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low;
Tread down the wicked in their place.
Hide them in the dust together,
Bind their faces in hidden darkness.

Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you.

It didn’t take the Lord but a moment to ask some seriously valid questions from a mere mortal who had been making a lot of invalid statements. Basically the Lord was saying to Job, “If you think you can teach Me or correct Me, if you think you can deal with the wicked while displaying yourself in awesome majesty, beauty and excellency, then Job, I will make a bold statement that you indeed are well able to save yourself!” What the Lord was telling Job was in essence, “If you can do all this then you certainly don’t need me – do you?” Wow – who do we think we really are? Those questions alone, never mind the 61 questions that preceded these would make any human wish they had never once opened their mouths! What could anyone possibly say to these questions? Not a thing!

And as if that wasn’t enough, the Lord in His infinite wisdom went on to present the creation of the behemoth to him. At that time it may have been among - if not the very first beast the Lord created. And this type of beast was the biggest and strongest, most powerful creature of the earth. He was so big – thought to be the same as an elephant or hippopotamus that no man could take him down. Only God would have the power to take the life of one of those massive creatures. Imagine yourself standing without weapon or defense next to a wild elephant or rhino for example. Would you be a bit intimidated? Would his mighty weight and power overwhelm you? Would you feel completely helpless in his presence?

Back in the days when these creatures first roamed the earth there was no strong and powerful weapons to kill such a creature if one was in danger in their presence. They used swords back then. Piercing the side of one of them would be like inflicting a minor scratch on your hand - no big deal. He could turn and flick you away like a tiny flea! We can believe that the Lord wanted to show Job a little more about His mighty power and glory. He knew that Job needed to continue to eat a little more of that great big humble pie he had been served, just to make sure he got the full taste of it. And the very reason these events are published in God’s word is that we need to know this too.

When was the last time you had to be corrected? When were you humbled so much that you wished you had not even spoken and the Lord dealt with you and showed you the error of your ways? It was pretty humbling, wasn’t it? But the thing is saints, we have to maintain a humble heart at all times before our Almighty Creator. He is a good God and only does what is good, fair and right at all times. There is never any error in Him. There is never any weakness or misjudging of a situation in Him. From the biggest issue on the planet to the least – the Lord is great and mighty over them all. None of the concerns of man hold a candle in the whirlwind and tempest of our God. He is a consuming power; a force no person or thing can touch or compare to.

Today we can see several of the great attributes of God. Let’s look at a Psalm that reveals a lot about this…

Psalm 33 (A Review)

Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful.
Praise the Lord with the harp; make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy.

Yahweh – The Lord Jehovah

To begin with the Lord is always worthy to be praised! We should offer new songs with our voices and our instruments, done skillfully – He is worthy at all times to be praised. The wonderful thing too is that God considers it a beautiful act when we praise and worship Him – hallelujah!

For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice;

Jehovah – tsidkenu – The Lord our Righteousness

We see the Lord’s His righteousness here. Everything He does is completely right at all times – there is no error in Him!

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

Adonai – My great Lord

Everything about God is good. In our world today many have misrepresented Him as a mean and angry God – nothing could be further from the truth. When people go to heaven and come back to the earth to tell about it, they always talk about the love and peace they felt when they were in His presence. He is good – all the time. His goodness radiates in and through everything – in heaven and in the earth.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses.

Elohim – The All Powerful One – The Creator

Saints, He is powerful, oh so powerful! Do we think there is any situation on this earth that could compare in power to Him? When we consider what He has done, I mean really consider it, doesn’t it make anything we face in this life seem trivial? That’s perspective folks.

Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.

El Shaddai – The All Sufficient One – The God of the mountains – God Almighty

He is an awesome and fearful God. Remember that the fear; that is, the holy and reverential awe of Him is essential if we are going to truly understand who He is and what He means for us all. Job was getting a mighty dose of that on the day the Lord was having this discussion with him, wasn’t he? Wouldn’t it do every man, woman and child in this world today a lot of good to see God for who He really is? To see Him in the fearful and awesome wonder of His mighty weight and power? Wouldn’t people handle life completely differently if they knew the God who made us and sustains our every breath?

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.
The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.

Omniscient – Knowing All Things

His wisdom is above, yes, far above our limited human understanding. If you or I were going to court, wouldn’t we want Him at our defense? And that is exactly what we have when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior – we have God our Creator as our Defense Attorney. No one can come close to that and no one can put a price on that benefit either! Hallelujah!

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

El Elyon – The God Most High

The Lord is our King – our Ruler. When a nation has the Lord as their Ruler, everybody rejoices.

The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.

El Roi – the God who sees

When we see this attribute of God, we learn that there is nothing that is hidden from His sight. He literally can see everything, in our hearts, in our minds and in our bodies. There is not one single thing in existence that God cannot see. That is a breath taking thought, isn’t it saints?

No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

El – He is the Strong One

There is no strength – not even the most powerful nuclear weapon on the planet today that even begins to come close to God’s strength and might. Nothing! With that kind of strength, the wisest thing a man can do is to have God on their side.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

Jehovah Jireh – The Lord our Provider

This is where a lot of God’s children get hung up. They think their job is their provider. And how about the government or our spouses? Even our families and friends or brothers and sisters in the Lord are called upon daily to provide a need. It is the Lord who provides. Yes, He works through people, but He is the source of our every need. How many try to ask other people for what they need rather than taking it to the Lord directly and trusting Him to bring their provision?

It happens all too often, and then when folks come up short they look up and blame God. It’s just not PHAR-I-SEE! God wants to provide for us but He can’t and He won’t take that responsibility out of our stubborn little hands. If we think we know how to get what we need He will let us ‘have at it’ until we get good and ready to look to Him to provide. It’s simple, but many make it much more complicated. And that’s so SADD-U-CEE!

Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.

Jehovah-nissi – Our Banner

Imagine yourself standing underneath the wings of a great big and powerful eagle. His mammoth wings spread out wide and wrap themselves over and around you to shield you from the elements in the weather and anything else that might consider you as prey. How awesome it is to know that God spreads His feathers over and around us like His baby chicks – and we are. We need His banner. As His word tells us, His banner over us is love. Picture that for a moment. Be captured in His embrace. Nothing can compare to that saints! Nothing at all!

For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.

El Olam – The Everlasting God

Friends, He is trustworthy. He is faithful. He is the everlasting God who gives strength to the weary. Doesn’t it make you rejoice when you find someone you can really trust and believe in? Well look no further friends – God is the only One we can trust at all times. There is no other. People will fail us at times – some more than others, but God never will. Oh hallelujah! That’s worth shoutin’ about!

Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in You.

Immanuel – God with us – “I AM”

This is Jesus. He is the exact representation of God who came down to earth and laid aside all His mighty weight and glory to be with us and like us to help us and ultimately save us from eternal damnation - hallelujah! Thank You Jesus! He is mercy – His blood now covers the mercy seat at the altar in heaven. He left after His resurrection to go up and present His blood as the atoning sacrifice for our sins – once for all so we could be reconciled to God. Look at this…

2 Corinthians 5:18-21

 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The end of what God did through Jesus was the beginning for man; causing us to become His new creations through Christ. In the scriptures we looked at today we see Jesus Christ in God – the Lord God Almighty, who is strong and powerful, all-knowing, loving, caring – he is everywhere and ever so faithful and merciful.

He is man’s all in all – hence the name “I AM”, because He is ‘our everything’. Is there anything that you feel need of today? You can find it in Him. Is there any pain in your heart or body? You can take His healing right now. Is there any problem or situation that you are facing right now? You can have it – take it – it’s yours through Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us. Hallelujah! Friends, there is nothing too big for our God and there is nothing that can compare to Him. This is something that Job needed to see before he could go on in his life and ministry for the Lord.

Every one of us must come to a place and time in our lives when we see God for Who He really is and we acknowledge it. When we come face to face with His deity, that is, who He is and what He represents, there will be a major shift in our lives. Nothing can be the same once we truly encounter His loving and powerful presence. When we experience His mercy over all our sins, and see His grace in our lives day after day giving us blessings upon blessings that we certainly don’t deserve, then we will become a changed people – holy, reconciled to God – new creations. His presence changes things.

We have looked at the powerful force of a tornado blowing everything in its path at approximately 261 MPH. That is a very powerful force, albeit a very negative force. Now we can look at God, a very powerful force as well, but His power is a good force. It makes the strength of a tornado look like a whisper of wind compared to the Lord. Job needed to have some things in his heart and mind set straight – he needed an attitude adjustment in a big way. Can you see that God was showing Job tremendous mercy by giving him audience that day? And why? Because He deeply and completely loved Job – just like He loves you! God did not like seeing him suffer and struggle like he had. But the Lord had to wait for Job to come to the end of himself so he could look up and see how big God really is.

There’s nothing that compares to the Lord – nothing. He exceeds everything in goodness. We are blessed to have the Creator and ruler of the universe love us so much. Maybe you can take some time today to ponder this in your heart and even share it with someone else. Perhaps you know someone whom this might help. God is there – yes, He is everywhere, just waiting for us to come to Him. He’s all we need! Hallelujah!

Questions:

What were the Lord’s first questions to Job in our chapter today?

What was Job’s response to the Lord?

What is the essence of God’s questions in verses 8-14?

What did the creation of the behemoth mean as it relates to God’s discussion with Job today?

What is your current view of God in relationship to our discussion today?

Do you feel that changing your perspective of the Lord might make a change in your life? Explain your answer. 

Deuteronomy 10:12-22

 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? 

¹⁴ Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. 

¹⁵ The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.

¹⁶ Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. 

¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. 

¹⁸ He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.

¹⁹ Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 

²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. 

²¹ He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. 

²² Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

There are three main points to consider from today’s study…

There is no one on earth who can compare to our God

Men must humble themselves in the presence of the Lord

The greatest power on the planet is nothing compared to the power of our great God

 Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for showing us how really big and powerful and wonderful You are! Father, forgive me for the ways I have not acknowledged You for who you are and what You are able to do in my life when I humbly come to You for everything. Forgive my pride and stubbornness, my lack of willingness to submit to Your authority Sir. Show me the ways I can change those behaviors to fall in line with Your perfect plan for my life. Father, I acknowledge You as my Lord and Savior, Jesus, the great I am – Immanuel – God with me. From this day forward help me in my inner man to fully trust in You by staying in prayer and in Your word so that I can know Your will for every step of my journey while here on the earth. Thank You in advance for Your help Lord. I want to be used by You to be a blessing to many other people. Thank You Lord in Jesus name. Amen! 

In what ways can you improve your perception of who God is and what He can do?

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.

Colossians 3:15-17

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.